Letters to Cozy Glow

by Fluttercheer

A Letter from the Guidance Counselor

.
Dear Cozy Glow,

it's me, Starlight Glimmer. I bet you are surprised that I'm writing you, huh? And you probably expect that I am mad and that I will yell at you and list all the horrible things you did, like, betraying your fellow friendship students, joining forces with one of Equestria's most dangerous enemies and almost banishing the entire kingdom's magic. But, I won't do that.

Cozy Glow frowned, eyes getting narrowed. She let the piece of paper in her hooves sink a little. Then, very suddenly, a jovial expression appeared on her face.

“Well, golly, Starlight! You have such a great sense of humor! You should be a comedian!” The sarcastic snark in her voice betrayed her happy face.

From somewhere near her, a deep growl could be heard.

Despite what happened, I am actually not mad at you, Cozy. I am disappointed that you turned on us all and that you were even willing to banish me from Equestria so you could succeed with your plan. But I'm not mad.
And I know that we weren't exactly friends when you visited Princess Twilight's school.

“Oh, but you are wrong, Starlight! Everypony at the school was my friend! At least until Princess Twilight's stellar star students messed with my plan!” Cozy shifted her eyes and giggled. The tone of her voice slipped and got distorted into a cold, shiver-inducing cackle. Its echo menacingly reflected off Tartarus' walls.

You only came to my office to seek advice. But it meant something to me when you were there, Cozy. Being a guidance counselor at Princess Twilight's school is not exactly rewarding. She teaches friendship there, can you imagine how that decreases the chance that any students have social problems they need my help with? It's frustrating!
But you came to me and asked for help. After I helped you, my office was empty nearly all the time again and if the rare student showed up, they were more concerned with getting all their homework done or that they had to miss breakfast to not come late to school. You were the only one who came to me with an actual problem, Cozy.
It's weird but, if it hadn't been for your problems with friendship, I never would have felt what it actually means to be a guidance counselor! You gave me this chance and I will always be grateful for it.

“Gee, get to the point, guidance counselor!” Cozy rolled her eyes.

But, let's get to the point of this letter.

Cozy Glow's pupils shrunk.

I am writing you, Cozy, because I want to tell you that I still like you. Yes, you've done bad things and you caused a lot of trouble. But I don't believe that you are really such a horrible, power-obsessed filly like everycreature thinks it of you right now.
Maybe you heard about Queen Chrysalis once. She is one of Equestria's biggest threats. She tried to conquer Equestria with her changeling army twice and she even attempted it a third time before she got finally overthrown by her own people when they saw that she was just abusing them for her own gain. Princess Twilight told me she has been a menace for Equestria for more than one-thousand years now. She attacked villages and kingdoms regularly, was feeding on their population with her army and enslaved those who remained.
Chrysalis has done things that are far worse than what you did, Cozy. But I forgave her. I offered her peace regardless. And she rejected me and swore revenge, but that's not the point.
The point is, that you are not evil, Cozy. Chrysalis is evil, but you aren't. I don't understand why you did what you did, but I believe in you, Cozy. Deep inside, you are a good filly. And if there is anything you ever want to talk with me about, I want you to know that I am here.
You might not be a student at Princess Twilight's school anymore but, if you want, I can still be your guidance counselor. There is nothing I would enjoy more!
I am unfortunately not allowed to visit you, but you can find my address on the envelope. If anything is bothering you, Cozy, write me and I will do everything I can to help you. And even if you don't respond to my letter, I hope you won't mind if I send you another one day.
I like you and I care for you, Cozy.

Yours,

Starlight Glimmer

Cozy Glow put the letter down into her lap. “Oh, golly, look at this! The counselor cares!” she spoke, the sarcasm having returned into her voice. She snickered. “But let's go and see what happens!” The shout was aimed at no one in particular.

Cozy folded the letter in and placed it in a corner of her cage. “It sure is boring down here and I bet her letters will be hilarious to read!”

Having disposed of the envelope by crumpling it and tossing it out between the bars, Cozy curled up on the metallic bottom of her cage. Her smile as she fell asleep was sardonic.

Comments

[Yosh-E-O]

Nicely done. I wondered how you would handle each letter. Would it be just the letter? Would it be the letter and a brief description of Cozy's feelings? Lots of possibilities here.

The direction you took, to me, was more immersive. You go from seeing the letter and hearing Starlight's voice to returning to reality with Cozy as she is being, well, Cozy.

You also did well to keep her in-character for receiving the first letter. She'd definitely have this reaction. However you also showed that it did have a hint of positive impact on her. Slight but it s there.

It will be neat to see how this story finishes. Since Season 9 has her working with Tirek, Grogar, and Chrysalis, it could aid in leading to some sort of positive impact. However one that won't show in canon until later.

I, unless the writers are really trying to be sneaky, think Cozy is going to turn on Grogar. The friendship lessons seem to have sunk in. Now it's a matter of waiting for them to give her the opportunity to see them as less a method of manipulation and more of how to make a more pleasant life based on non-tangible nor conditional friendship.

Now, as a side thought, there is the possibility they'll really throw us off by making Cozy out to be some 'secret agent' who was meant to get into this situation. Princess Celestia has done some really weird things to prep Twilight to take over while having a talent for never putting herself in any true danger. If we find out Cozy is a kind of 'Agent' I would be a bit annoyed. Though it would better explain why you'd send a filly to Tartarus instead of someone like Starlight, a full-grown mare.

I just hope for a happier ending for cozy. I like her and feel she made a poor choice to be a villain. We have no real back story as to 'why' she'd be power hungry. She, if she's truly a filly, hasn't even lived long enough to be truly deemed a bad guy over needing some extreme therapy and/or medication.

I guess we'll find out soon enough.

In the meantime, I look forward to more of this tale. :)

[Fluttercheer]

9564406

Thanks! Writing this letter happened surprisingly fast, but only because of its short length. Putting myself into Starlight's horseshoes and thinking how she would write such a letter took more time than writing it all down.
It's the first time I'm writing a long and on-going story only with letters, so I'm not sure how future letters will look like, but I imagine they will become longer over time the more they talk to Cozy.
I'll also keep the style of showing how Cozy reacts to certain parts of the letters she receives.

However you also showed that it did have a hint of positive impact on her. Slight but it s there.

Hmm. And what part do you think shows that?

Now, as a side thought, there is the possibility they'll really throw us off by making Cozy out to be some 'secret agent' who was meant to get into this situation.

Strangely enough, I had this thought myself, after watching the Season 9 Opener. A very crazy thought, since there's nothing pointing to it, but I have a very wild imagination.
The observations I made about Sombra in the Opener have led my thoughts into that direction; basically, I am wondering if even Cozy herself is part of a big plan to test Twilight and her friends and if everything we've seen her doing in the Season 8 Finale was a preparation for that plan in the way that Celestia sent Cozy as a student at Twilight's school with the task of pretending to be a villain, to make her look more believable later on.
But, as I said, nothing points to that, so it's really just my wild imagination. On the contrary, there is a lot pointing against that, such as that Cozy even acted ominous when no one else was around. No, a spy or just a villain for pretend is something we can definitely rule out.

Though it would better explain why you'd send a filly to Tartarus instead of someone like Starlight, a full-grown mare.

There was no need to send Starlight to Tartarus. She wasn't a villain anymore after Twilight got through to her and no danger for Equestria anymore, so nopony had any reason to lock her up.
Cozy, however, is an active threat and she did not show any signs of changing, so they didn't have a choice but imprisoning her for the safety of Equestria.

She, if she's truly a filly, hasn't even lived long enough to be truly deemed a bad guy over needing some extreme therapy and/or medication.

She is a filly, as she told Grogar that she failed with her plan because she's "just a kid" (although, said that in a very sarcastic way, she clearly knows her abilities and what she is capable of). More subtly, this also got further confirmation by her acting around Tirek like he's her dad.
Hiding behind him in fear, constantly trying to get his attention, feeling cheered up by him explaining her something after she got scared, she definitely sees a father figure in him.
But I feel the same sentiments for her. She is definitely a threat and it would be too dangerous for Equestria to simply let her run free in the kingdom, but she is not evil and has mental issues, likely caused by some heavy trauma prior to her time at Twilight's school, that make her act like this.
If you can navigate to my blog entries, you can read the theory I wrote about Cozy after the Season 8 Finale in which I detailed what I think happened to her.

[Bronycommander]

Short but good. Frankly, I can't imagine cozy's evil, but misguided

[Emperor Draxgaroth]

she rejected me and swore revenge

Well DUH... of course she did, because you just destroyed her castle a.k.a HER HOME, and caused her people to betray their one and only rightful ruler....

[hmaf43]

I am writing you, Cozy, because I want to tell you that I still like you. Yes, you've done bad things and you caused a lot of trouble. But I don't believe that you are really such a horrible, power-obsessed filly like everycreature thinks it of you right now. Maybe you heard about Queen Chrysalis once. She is one of Equestria's biggest threats. She tried to conquer Equestria with her changeling army twice and she even attempted it a third time before she got finally overthrown by her own people when they saw that she was just abusing them for her own gain. Princess Twilight told me she has been a menace for Equestria for more than one-thousand years now. She attacked villages and kingdoms regularly, was feeding on their population with her army and enslaved those who remained. Chrysalis has done things that are far worse than what you did, Cozy. But I forgave her. I offered her peace regardless. And she rejected me and swore revenge, but that's not the point. The point is, that you are not evil, Cozy. Chrysalis is evil, but you aren't. I don't understand why you did what you did, but I believe in you, Cozy. Deep inside, you are a good filly. And if there is anything you ever want to talk with me about, I want you to know that I am here. You might not be a student at Princess Twilight's school anymore but, if you want, I can still be your guidance counselor. There is nothing I would enjoy more! I am unfortunately not allowed to visit you, but you can find my address on the envelope. If anything is bothering you, Cozy, write me and I will do everything I can to help you. And even if you don't respond to my letter, I hope you won't mind if I send you another one day. I like you and I care for you, Cozy.

i am not gonna read that shit.